The Argumentative Discourse in al-Ma‘arri’s Elegy

Abstract

This study presents a critical argumentative reading of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī’s poem "Of No Avail in My Doctrine and Belief", treating the text as a philosophical discourse that shows more than expressing grief. It reshapes awareness of death from a rational, existential perspective. The study is based on the central notion that presents traditional mourning rituals, such as weeping, wailing, and chanting, as ultimately ineffective, merely reflecting emotional outbursts unanchored in intellectual reflection or firm philosophical conviction.

The study comprises three sections. The first section sheds light on the poem’s central argumentative notion, in which al-Maʿarrī critiques dominant cultural norms surrounding expressions of grief, framing his rejection through his stance "In My Doctrine and Belief," thus granting his discourse both existential and intellectual legitimacy. The second section analyzes the types of argumentation used in the poem, which range across rational, historical, religious, and symbolic modes. These strategies collectively persuade the reader by appealing to logic, symbolism, history, and belief.

The section also examines the rhetorical devices al-Maʿarrī employs to support his arguments, such as evaluative rhetorical questions, structural repetition, semantic irony, and symbolic imagery. These tools serve not only aesthetic purposes but also function to unsettle prevailing assumptions and reconstruct values. The final section discusses the poem’s overall argumentative structure, which progresses logically from critique, to evidence, to philosophical grounding and finally to closure, resulting in a coherent dialectical structure reminiscent of philosophical discourse.

The study adopts a pragmatic argumentative approach, using rhetorical analysis and philosophical critique tools. This methodology provides an in-depth exploration of the argumentative architecture in al-Maʿarrī’s poetry, revealing that his poem is not a traditional elegy, but rather a rational, critical discourse that reconsiders conventional modes of expressing death and proposes a symbolic alternative aligned with a knowledge-based vision free from habit and emotion